EASTPOINTE – A speedy offense and hard-hitting defense helped propel the East Detroit Shamrocks to a 47-7 win over Madison Heights Lamphere in a MAC Silver matchup Friday night.

A 69-yard touchdown run by junior Justun Conrad in the first quarter, an 86-yard quarterback keeper by Ryan Chesney in the second quarter and consistent tackling and blocking by the Shamrock defense were the main factors in the victory. The play of the Shamrocks offensive line allowed Conrad to weave through the Lamphere defense and break loose into the end zone.

“We’ve been working hard on the defense in practice this week,” said East Detroit Coach Branden Banks. “We kind of changed up the personal and did some things differently than we have in our first two games of the season.”

Turnovers were a problem for the Shamrocks in their first two losses, and in the early going it looked like it was going to be a problem against Lamphere too. But the Shamrocks stopped, regrouped and figured out how to start forcing turnovers to go the other way.

“They realized they didn’t want to do that and what they needed to do to stop turning the ball over,” said Banks. “We played better football tonight and we were able to make good use of our strengths like our speed.”

Trevor Guilmette put Lamphere on the board first with a touchdown run on Lamphere’s first possession. The Rams led 7-0 after the first quarter. But the second quarter started with that Conrad’s long touchdown run followed by a Lamphere turnover. The Rams managed to get the ball back but couldn’t capitalize on the scoreboard.

“I just want to say I’m very proud of this football team,” said Lamphere Coach Jason Charron. “East Detroit had four really good plays and that was the difference in the game. But we are improving and did a lot of things this week we didn’t do last week. I like the growth that I am seeing from week to week and we are going to continue to do that.”

Lamphere is inexperienced this year with several underclassmen and many who have not played organized football prior to this season. Charron expects his Rams to evolve as the season progresses.

Banks hopes the win against Lamphere will fire up his Shamrocks for next week’s contest.

“We play Warren Woods Tower next week so we really need to come out playing hard and we have to continue to eliminate mistakes,” Banks said. “We had a lot of penalties tonight and this is something we can’t do next week against Tower.”